NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has hinted at what kind of Christmas she hopes for the state this year, despite cases continuing to soar.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has hit out at her counterparts, accusing state and territory leaders of “walking away” from the national cabinet plan to reopen Australia.
Speaking to media on Tuesday, after announcing the state had recorded a further 1164 cases of Covid-19 and another three deaths, Ms Berejiklian said she couldn’t understand why Premiers and Chief Ministers were no longer on board with the plan that she claims everyone “signed up to”.
“I don’t understand why some Premiers are walking away from the plan that all of us signed up to [and] national cabinet signed off on,” she said.
“What 70 per cent looks like in New South Wales double-dose might be different to Western Australia but it means we’ll be much freer.
“The key issue for us is to remember we are the largest population, the highest density, the highest diversity. What matters is having our hospital system not overwhelmed and that’s the delicate balance we need to consider moving forward.
Ms Berejiklian said the important figure to look at going forward was not the case number, but rather the number of people in hospital and that nursing staff do not become “overwhelmed”.
“Come 70 per cent when the vast majority of people are vaccinated, case numbers will matter but they’ll matter less when you’ve got higher rates of vaccination because that will tell you to what extent the hospital system can cope in a reasonable way with all the cases,” the Premier explained.
“I’m having this conversation now because our citizens are entitled to have direct and transparent advice as I receive it so we can start thinking about Covid in a different way once we get to 70 per cent double dose because the way that we deal with cases, the way we
count things will be completely different once you have the higher rates of vaccination and that’s important, as confronting as it’s been.”
Ms Berejiklian said it’s time that “every state” now accepts the “confronting fact” that Australia has to live with Delta — even if their jurisdiction doesn’t have current cases.
“As the Federal Treasurer [Josh Frydenberg] said a few days ago it would be disappointing if New South Wales and Victorian residents were able to go overseas before they can go
interstate,” she said.
“We want Australians reunited with their families at Christmas time. My absolute goal and dream is to have every Australian home for Christmas, whether it’s Aussies within Australia visiting loved ones, or Aussies overseas coming back home.”
The Premier’s comments come as Western Australia’s Premier Mark McGowan said “hundreds would die” if he opened the state border to NSW even when the state hits the 70 per cent vaccination target.
Mr McGowan said easing border restrictions “prematurely” would be akin to “deliberately” bringing the Delta variant into WA.
Despite the Doherty Institute modelling around easing restrictions at 70 or 80 per cent vaccination, and Prime Minister Scott Morrison urging state and territory leaders to not be afraid of Covid-19 case numbers once enough of the population is vaccinated, Mr McGowan has previously called for that modelling to be reassessed.
“Some people want us to remove our border controls with Sydney when only 70 per cent of adults are vaccinated (which is only 56 per cent of the overall population),” he wrote on his Facebook page on Tuesday.
“By knowingly letting the virus in, it would mean we’d have hundreds of people die, have to wind back our local freedoms, introduce restrictions and shut down large parts of our economy.
“I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to see people dying in nursing homes or aged care villages or disability centres or hospitals.
“I don’t want to bring back harsh limits on local businesses.
“It’s just odd for the Commonwealth Government to keep arguing for this – to be clear, removing ALL travel restrictions, domestic or international, is not part of the national plan at either 70 or 80 per cent.
“When it is safe to do so we will open the borders – when an overwhelming majority of our population has been vaccinated.”